When you think of a steel service center, you probably picture massive coils, truckloads of skids, and high-volume contracts with Just-In-Time automotive manufacturers. We send truckloads of flat-rolled steel across the country for large operations, but a big and important part of our business comes from small steel orders, many less than 5,000 lbs.
Supporting Hundreds of Customers
Hascall is one of the few service centers that has hundreds of customers. Not one customer makes up the majority of our tonnage; this is just one reason why we are more dependable than the rest. The diversity of our customers makes us stronger because major headwinds in one industry, like construction right now, have little effect on our overall volume. This allows us to consistently use economies of scale for the benefit of our customers, small and large.
For a conglomerate, a 2,000 lb order is a nuisance, but for Hascall, it’s an opportunity to serve a customer that may be small today but has the potential to grow larger. At the end of the day, we understand that when you only need 500 lbs, minimum order quantities from a corporate service center will hurt your business, so we are not like them. Our salespeople take the time to browse our inventory and come up with a solution that works. Most service centers make you take the product of a coil or pay for the scrap. The Hascall Advantage means we are confident that another one of our customers will need a small quantity from that coil too, therefore you are not responsible for it.
Small Orders. Big Impact.
Years ago, we had a manufacturer inquire on our website needing two sheets of EDDS 16-gauge cold roll and four sheets of 14-gauge Grade 80 hot roll. They needed it fast and it was a Thursday afternoon. Because we had the sheets in stock, we said yes to the order, and they had the steel on their dock Friday morning. This customer has grown tenfold and acquired several other facilities since we started working together.
We are grateful that we had the opportunity to serve them while they were still small. Now when Dag and Ava Hascall visit Chicago, they stop in, not because they are the biggest customers, but because they are great people with an impressive strategy, and we wish them well. When we have steel, we are willing to move quickly. While our competitors take orders that they cannot fulfil on time; we only commit to what we can guarantee. If you like working with a company that says what they mean and does what they say, you understand the value of the Hascall Advantage.